“The Queen” Phetjeeja Lukjaoporongtom emerged as the Undisputed ONE Atomweight Kickboxing Champion after her historic win over Janet Todd in the main event of ONE Fight Night 20. With this victory, the Thai athlete goes 6-0 in ONE, and her undefeated streak puts a target on her back. But “The Queen” welcomes any and all comers, and has nothing but praise for the retiring former champion.
In an exclusive interview with Sportsmanor, she revealed her thoughts immediately following the fight and recalled feeling bittersweet.
“I feel like the fight was in overall very impressive. To me, it was Janet’s last fight. I think my favorite moment was like the thing after the actual fight, where she said goodbye, where she like you know announced her retirement on the stage. It was very touching. I was happy for her, and also sad at the same time that like she leave the career,” said the woman who unified the Atomweight Kickboxing Titles via unanimous decision.
This was only the second time that a Phetjeeja fight was decided based on points, as the rising Thai sensation won her first four via knockout. You can check out the full interview here:
Speaking of knockouts, The Queen can riddle her opponents with kicks, yes, but her fists are just as lethal! With two silver medals and a gold in amateur boxing tournaments, could we see her fight in Paris this year?
Phetjeeja shuts down a return to boxing for the Olympics
Kickboxing isn’t the only school of fighting that The Queen is proficient in. Her first love has always been Muay Thai, but Phetjeeja also trained as a boxer for a while. In fact, she secured the bronze medal in the Women’s 51kg bracket at the 2021 South East Asian Games. With the 2024 Olympics on the horizon, we wanted to know if she had aspirations to become an Olympic medalist, but she wants to focus entirely on her career as a Muay Thai fighter.
“I don’t think I would be going back to boxing, because Muay Thai has always been my passion.”
Phetjeeja Lukjaoporongtom shows no interest in going back to boxing#ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/S7yxlWyo3g
— Sportsmanor ONE (@Sportsmanor_one) March 23, 2024
Phetjeeja said, “I don’t think I would be going back to boxing, because Muay Thai has always been my passion. I had fallen in love with Muay Thai since I was very young, so I just really want to follow my dream and also do what I can do best.” The Queen is a multi-disciplinary fighter with many accolades in boxing too, but don’t expect to see her in a ring anytime soon.
Phetjeeja is eyeing all the gold in the Atomweight division; and Thongpoon PK Saenchai
On the topic of Muay Thai, Phetjeeja expressed a desire to go after the current ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Champion, Allycia Rodrigues. Not only that, she also wants to have a go at Stamp Fairtex’s MMA title, but that is a goal the Queen will build up to, as she wants to train in MMA before going after Fairtex.
Phetjeeja said, “Of course, why not, but the first one would be for the Muay Thai belt. After that, I would probably try MMA, I would probably try to learn the rules. It has always been my interest and that would be fun to you know going after the belt with Stamp Fairtex because I really want to see how it goes with her skills and my skills”.
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“Actually I was really thinking about that, if it’s possible in ONE Championship. But I think, in terms of, like, legally, I think that’s prohibited. But I’ve been thinking about it, I mean, that would be great. I think I would want to fight some of the male athletes, and um, I don’t have anyone specifically to, that I want to face or not want to face, I think I can face anyone who’s in my weight division if we go for the special rules boxing. That would be my interest.”
And that’s not all! When asked about an inter-gender dream match in the ONE Championship, The Girl Who Beats Up Boys said in the interview that it isn’t currently possible to have such a match-up. But she has been thinking about it a lot of late, and she even has an opponent in mind: “Yes, my dream match would be Thongpoon, but he needs to lose some weight to be Atomweight!”
While it remains to be seen whether the champ’s wishes come true or not, we will be keeping an eye out for her next fight, regardless.